Live Tiles Without Application-Code Execution

ABSTRACT

This document describes techniques enabling live tiles without application-code execution. These techniques permit live content to be presented in tiles without executing code of applications associated with those tiles. By so doing, live tiles may be presented more safely, faster, or using fewer resources.

BACKGROUND

Conventional techniques provide content for tiles by executing code ofapplications associated with each tile. Doing so, however, hassignificant security issues. Allowing an application to execute code ona client's device exposes the client device to numerous maliciousactions. This is especially true for small applications (“apps”) commonto mobile devices, as users often have tens and even hundreds of apps ontheir mobile devices. For each of these apps that is allowed to run codeon the client device, the risk of malicious action increasescommensurately.

These security issues can be addressed by sandboxing or otherwiseblocking out each of the apps. Doing so, however, can be both slow anduse significant resources, especially when many apps need to execute onthe device. Thus, permitting code of applications associated with tilesto execute can be unsafe, slow, or consume substantial computingresources.

SUMMARY

This document describes techniques enabling live tiles withoutapplication-code execution. These techniques permit live content to bepresented in tiles without executing code of applications associatedwith those tiles. By so doing, live tiles may be presented more safely,faster, or using fewer resources.

This summary is provided to introduce simplified concepts enabling livetiles without application-code execution, which is further describedbelow in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended toidentify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is itintended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.Techniques and/or apparatuses enabling live tiles withoutapplication-code execution are also referred to herein separately or inconjunction as the “techniques” as permitted by the context.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments enabling live tiles without application-code execution aredescribed with reference to the following drawings. The same numbers areused throughout the drawings to reference like features and components:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example system in which techniques enabling livetiles without application-code execution can be implemented.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of the computing device of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 illustrates methods enabling live tiles without application-codeexecution.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example live-tile interface having fourteen livetiles.

FIG. 5 illustrates methods enabling live tiles without application-codeexecution and based on an identity of a user.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example network environment having multipledifferent remote content sources from which a live-tile interface canreceive respective content.

FIG. 7 illustrates methods for presenting retrieved content associatedwith multiple applications without local execution of application code.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example device in which techniques for live tileswithout application-code execution can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling live tileswithout application-code execution. These techniques enable a user tosee live content within tiles, including without executing code ofapplications associated with those tiles.

In some cases the techniques enable a live-tile user interface havingnumerous live tiles displaying content of associated applications. Indoing so, however, code of these applications does not need to beexecuted. Instead, an indicator of the application, such as one storedin non-executing metadata of the application, indicates a source forcontent of the application. The techniques may then retrieve thiscontent from the source and present the content in the tile associatedwith that application. The techniques may do so in a secure manner byleveraging a trusted operating-system component to download live contenton behalf of the applications.

Furthermore, in some cases, a user may wish to interact with content ona new device or unknown device. Assume that the user would like tointeract with content associated with his or her applications, such asthrough a user interface having many live tiles showing that content.Assume also that the user is using a new device or some temporarydevice, such as a friend's mobile device, a computer at an internet caféor library, or some other new or temporary device. Current solutions forproviding live content may require installation of these applications,which as noted can be tens or even hundreds of applications. Doing soconsumes extraordinary amounts of resources and, in some cases, is soslow that the user experience is poor.

Through use of the techniques, however, executing or even installing theapplications can be avoided. Instead of having to install, for example,50 applications to execute code of those applications to retrievecontent for 50 live tiles, no applications are installed. The techniquesdetermine a source for the content, such as through metadata of theapplications or some record of the user's applications, and therebyretrieve the content for presentation within the live tiles.

Not only can the techniques reduce resource usage, improve performance,or increase security, in many cases the techniques also make applicationdevelopment easier. No longer does an application developer develop codefor providing content to live tiles, instead, the application developerneeds only include or provide some sort of indicator to show wherecontent for the application can be retrieved.

These are but a few examples in which the techniques enable live tiles.Numerous other examples, as well as ways in which the techniquesoperate, are described below. This discussion proceeds to describe anexample environment in which the techniques may operate, methodsperformable by the techniques, and an example apparatus below.

Example Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an example environment 100 in which techniquesenabling live tiles without application-code execution can be embodied.Environment 100 includes a computing device 102 having a tile manager104, content source 106, and communication network 108, which enablescommunication across various networks. In this illustration, computingdevice 102, through tile manager 104, receives or retrieves metadata 110of application 112, shown at arrow 1-1. With this metadata 110, tilemanager 104 retrieves content through communication network 108 and fromcontent source 106, shown at arrow 1-2. Tile manager 104 then, shown atarrow 1-3, presents content within a live tile associated withapplication 112 and in live-tile interface 114. Note that executablecode 116 of application 112 is not executed, nor is it used to gain thecontent. Executable code 116 is shown for context, though it (and evenapplication 112 in some cases), need not be stored on, installed on, oreven accessible by computing device 102.

Content can include what is new or of potential interest for application112, such as a new email, entry, article, picture, video, song, orindication that a software update or expiration is approaching. Newcontent is content that is determined to be, or is likely to be, newlypresented to a user associated with live-tile interface 114. Thus,content that has not previously been presented in a tile, or has notbeen presented since the user last opened live-tile interface 114,whether on computing device 102 or some other device, can be considerednew content.

Other content, however, can also be shown, such as content seenpreviously but known, or likely to be, of interest to the user. Examplesinclude an indication that a subscription is expiring and must berenewed, an indication that the user has selected to be maintained, suchas a number of seats left at a particular showing of a movie that theuser is interested in seeing at that time, or newest content for theapplication even if it was previously presented to the user.

While not required, content within a live tile can be directed to asingle set of larger content, such as presenting one image and aheadline for a news article that, if presented by the application, wouldhave ten pictures and five pages of text. Further, multiple content canbe presented within a live tile at one time, or can be rotated on andoff, or both.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example embodiment of computing device 102 of FIG.1, which is illustrated with six examples devices: a laptop computer102-1, a tablet computer 102-2, a smart phone 102-3, a set-top box102-4, a desktop computer 102-5, and a gaming device 102-6, though othercomputing devices and systems, such as servers and netbooks, may also beused.

Computing device 102 includes or has access to computer processor(s)202, computer-readable storage media 204 (media 204), and one or moredisplays 206, four examples of which are illustrated in FIG. 2. Media204 includes an operating system 208, tile manager 104, and applications112, each of which may include metadata 110 and executable code 116.

Tile manager 104 is capable of enabling live tiles withoutapplication-code execution. As noted above, the techniques, here throughtile manager 104, are capable of presenting content within tiles. Thiscontent is associated with, but not generated by, executing code ofapplications 112. Thus, while media 204 may include applications 112,and metadata 110 and executable code 116 thereof, execution is notneeded to present content in live tiles associated with applications112. Further, in various examples described herein, tile manager 104 mayoperate without computing device 102 storing, executing, or eveninstalling applications 112. Therefore, tile manager 104 may operatewithout applications 112 executing application code, even small portionsof application code, thereby making content presentation in live tilesmore secure.

Tile manager 104 includes live-tile interface 114, which is capable ofpresenting content in live tiles associated with multiple applications,such as the twelve different live tiles illustrated in FIG. 1 and theirrespective applications. In some cases, live-tile interface 114 presentslive tiles in a particular layout 210, which may be configured by tilemanager 104 by default, by frequency of usage, or by user selection.

As noted, applications 112 include, or are associated with, metadata110. Metadata 110 is, or may include, non-executable propertiesassociated with application 112. Metadata 110 may include indicator 212and frequency 214, as well as other properties, such as a format inwhich to present content (e.g., one image on left, text only on right,and so forth). Indicator 212 provides sufficient information for tilemanager 104 to retrieve content associated with the application, whichmay simply identify the application, a link to new or all content, or auniversal resource locator (URL) usable by tile manager 104 to retrievecontent.

Frequency 214 is associated with application 112, and can be used bytile manager 104 to determine a frequency at which to retrieve contentfor application 112, such as repetitively at frequency 214. Frequency214 may also, or instead, be used as part of establishing a data pushfrom content source 106. For example, content source 106 may beconfigured to push content to computing device 102 at, or based on,frequency 214. In both cases, content can be received or retrieved onlywhen new or regardless of whether the content is new to the user. Whilemetadata 110 can be or include non-executable properties, metadata 110can be written in various markup languages or formats, such aseXtensible markup language (XML), hypertext markup language (HTML), orreally simple syndication (RSS), just to name a few. By so doing, tilemanager 104 may easily parse metadata 110 for indicator 212 andfrequency 214. Note that indicator 212 and/or frequency 214 may bereceived or used without necessarily receiving metadata 110, as will bedescribed in greater detail below.

Ways in which entities of FIGS. 1 and 2 act and interact vary and areset forth in greater detail below. The entities illustrated forcomputing device 102, as well as content source 106, can be separate orintegrated.

Example Methods

FIG. 3 depicts a method 300 for enabling live tiles withoutapplication-code execution. In portions of the following discussionreference may be made to environment 100 of FIG. 1 and/or entities ofFIG. 2, reference to which is made for example only. The order in whichthe following methods are described is not intended to be construed as alimitation, and any number or combination of the described methodoperations can be performed in any order to perform a method, or analternate method for enabling live tiles without application-codeexecution.

Block 302 receives metadata of an application, the metadata having anindicator. As noted above, tile manager 104 may receive this metadata byregistering or installing an application, though in some cases it mayinstead be received or retrieved from a remote source, such as contentsource 106. By way of example only, consider tile manager 104, whichreceives metadata 110 when registering application 112 but withoutexecuting executable code 116 of application 112.

Block 304 retrieves, based on the indicator, content associated with theapplication. In the ongoing example, assume that tile manager 104downloads data from a URL of content source 106 based on the indicator,the URL associated with the particular application. Further, assume thattile manager 104 determines, from user records or content source 106,that one particular piece of the content available at the URL is newsince the content for the application was last presented in a live tileto this user.

Block 306 presents, within a live tile associated with the application,the content within the live tile. The content may also be presentedwithin a live-tile user interface having multiple other live tilesassociated with other applications. As noted above, the acts ofreceiving metadata of the application, retrieving the content associatedwith the application, and presenting the content within the live tilecan be performed without executing application code.

Concluding the present example, assume that tile manager 104 presentsanother example of live-tile interface 114, shown in FIG. 4. Thislive-tile interface 114 includes fourteen live tiles, eleven of themrelatively large and three relatively small. The live tile of interestin this example is live tile 402, which is associated with a Newsapplication. The content new since the user was last presented contentfor this application concerns a weather satellite. This content 404 isshown in expanded form at 406 as well to illustrate that, while livetiles may be fairly small, meaningful new content can be presentedwithin them. Here, a user may see this new content and determine that,without executing the associated News application, the article is or isnot interesting. In some cases, the user may determine that sufficientcontent relating to the article has been shown and thus, while thearticle is interesting, the user need not take the time to read the fullarticle.

As noted in part above, where multiple content changes for anapplication are retrieved, tile manager 104 may present the newest ofthe content changes or rotate through these content changes. In anycase, however, new content permits live tiles to maintain a live feelfor live-tile interface 114. The term live tile is intended to representthe updating of content for tiles, in contrast to a tile that does notchange. Thus, a tile in which new content is presented, whether thecontent is animated, moving, rotating or not, enables the tile to belive to the user.

In this context, assume that the user viewed live tile 402 at 9 A.M.and, on viewing live-tile interface 114 at 3 P.M., is presented withlive tile 402 reporting content new since to the News application since9 A.M. Here the new content is the article concerning a weathersatellite that has been damaged by a meteor and may crash to earth.Content 406 shows content (or a portion thereof) for the news articlethat is now available at the News application website, here with animage of a satellite, a title of the article, and a first sentence ofthe article.

Note also that tile manager 104 may, via live-tile interface 114,present content for multiple applications all at one time, one-at-a-time(e.g., in rapid progression), after compiling into batches, and/or at afrequency associated with each respective application.

FIG. 5 depicts a method 500 enabling live tiles without application-codeexecution and based on an identity of a user.

Block 502 receives, at a computing device with which a user is notassociated, an identifier associated with the user. Such a computingdevice may be a public network terminal, a friend's mobile phone, and soforth. The computing device may have been used by the user in the past,but has not retained all or any of the installed applications of alive-tile interface. The live-tile interface may be associated with theuser or based on an association with the user. Thus, while a user mayhave used a same desktop computer at a library, the desktop computer maynot have retained various installed applications or otherwise retainedan association with the user. The user's association with the computingdevice is therefore being newly established or renewed, as least withrespect to a live-tiles interface.

The identifier received can be of many various types, such as a name andpassword, simple name (if no security is desired), gesture password,retinal scan, biometric, and so forth. The techniques (alone or withassistance) may then authenticate the user, though this is notnecessarily required.

Block 504 determines, based on the identifier, multiple applicationsassociated with the user. Tile manager 104 may determine the multipleapplications in various manners, such as by passing the identifier to aremote authenticator, receiving authentication of the user, passing theauthentication to an entity that records application associations forusers, and so forth. Thus, tile manager 104 may determine applicationsand/or their indicators (e.g., URLs), or block 504 may be used incombination with block 506 to retrieve content from a same source as theentity (e.g., content source 106) that provides associations based onthe user identifier.

Block 506 retrieves content associated with one or more uninstalledapplications of the multiple applications. These uninstalledapplications have not been installed on the computing device or havebeen previously uninstalled. The content can be retrieved from multipledifferent remote content sources or, as noted above, tile manager 104may retrieve content from a single source, such as content source 106 ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example network environment having multipledifferent remote content sources. In the context of this particularexample, tile manager 104 determines multiple applications for a userand then retrieves, for those multiple applications, content frommultiple different remote content sources. As illustrated in FIG. 6,tile manager 104 communicates with remote computing device 602 (e.g.,authentication server) at arrow 6-1 through network 108. Tile manager104 identifies a user and requests application indicators associatedwith the user from remote computing device 602, such as URLs for each ofmultiple applications. With these URLs, tile manager 104 retrievescontent from multiple remote content sources 604-1, 604-2, and 604-3,each of which is associated with live tiles 606-1, 606-2, and 606-3respectively, shown at arrows 6-2.

Block 508 presents, within live tiles associated with the one or moreuninstalled applications, the content retrieved. The techniques maypresent content in live tiles within a user interface associated withthe user, such as live-tile interface 114 of FIGS. 1, 4, or 6. Further,as noted in part above, tile manager 104 may present the live tiles in aparticular layout associated with the user, such as layout 210 of FIG.2, which may be determined as part of block 504. Tile manager 104 maypresent the content retrieved without executing application code on thecomputing device that is under control of one of the uninstalledapplications, though the techniques are not precluded from doing so forall live-tile-enabled applications associated with the user.

Concluding the illustrated example, tile manager 104, through live-tileinterface 114 of FIG. 6, presents content associated with variousapplications within live tiles 606-1, 606-2, and 606-3, shown at arrows6-3. Thus, content from remote content source 604-1, which is associatedwith the “F” application, is presented in live tile 606-1, content fromremote content source 604-2, which is associated with the “News”application, is presented in live tile 606-2, and content from remotecontent source 604-3, which is associated with the “In Touch”application, is presented in live tile 606-3.

Note again that each of live tiles 606 need not have an associatedapplication running, including even a browser or other portalapplication. Instead, tile manager 104 is capable of retrieving contentfrom remote sources, including doing so with low transmission bandwidth,reduced local computing resource usage, and with a fast user experience.

FIG. 7 depicts a method 700 for presenting retrieved content associatedwith multiple applications without local execution of application code.

Block 702 determines, based on an identifier associated with a user,live tiles associated with multiple applications of the user. The livetiles may be presented in a live-tile user interface having a particularlayout within the live-tile user interface. Tile manager 104 may do soin various manners set forth above, such as via live-tile interface 114of FIG. 1 and according to layout 210 of FIG. 2.

Block 704 retrieves, without local execution of application codeassociated with the multiple applications, content associated with themultiple applications. This content may be received from local or remotesources, such as remote content sources 604-1, 604-2, or 604-3 of FIG.6.

Block 706 presents, within the live tiles and in the layout of thelive-tile user interface, the retrieved content associated with themultiple applications. As noted, tile manager 104 may arrange live tilesin any suitable layout, such as a default layout, a usage-based layout,or layout 210. Note that layout 210 is associated with the user and/ormay be associated with the user's identifier. A user may select certainlive tiles to be presented, and configure a layout that matches his orher preferences. Even if the techniques are performed on a computingdevice not associated with the user, the user's identifier can be usedby tile manager 104 to determine the user's preferred live tiles andlayout thereof.

The preceding discussion describes methods enabling live tiles withoutapplication-code execution. These methods are shown as sets of blocksthat specify operations performed but are not necessarily limited to theorder shown for performing the operations by the respective blocks.

Aspects of these methods may be implemented in hardware (e.g., fixedlogic circuitry), firmware, software, manual processing, or anycombination thereof. A software implementation represents program codethat performs specified tasks when executed by a computer processor. Theexample methods may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, which can include software,applications, routines, programs, objects, components, data structures,procedures, modules, functions, and the like. The program code can bestored in one or more computer-readable memory devices, both localand/or remote to a computer processor. The methods may also be practicedin a distributed computing environment by multiple computing devices.

These techniques may be embodied on one or more of the entities shown inenvironment 100 of FIG. 1 (and as detailed in FIG. 2) and/or exampledevice 800 described below, which may be further divided, combined, andso on. Thus, environment 100 and/or device 800 illustrate some of manypossible systems or apparatuses capable of employing the describedtechniques. The entities of environment 100 and/or device 800 generallyrepresent software, firmware, hardware, whole devices or networks, or acombination thereof. In the case of a software implementation, forinstance, the entities (e.g., tile manager 104 and live-tile interface114 of FIGS. 1 and 2, content sources 106 and 604 of FIGS. 1 and 6, andremote computing device 602 of FIG. 6) represent program code thatperforms specified tasks when executed on a processor (e.g., processors202 and 810). The program code can be stored in one or morecomputer-readable memory devices, such as computer-readable storagemedia 204 or computer-readable media 814 of FIG. 8. The features andtechniques described herein are platform-independent, meaning that theymay be implemented on a variety of commercial computing platforms havinga variety of processors.

Example Apparatus

FIG. 8 illustrates an apparatus having various components, here as partof an example device 800, which can be implemented as any type ofclient, server, and/or computing device as described with reference tothe previous FIGS. 1-7 to implement techniques enabling live tileswithout application-code execution and other techniques describedherein. In some cases, device 800 can be implemented as one or acombination of a wired and/or wireless device, as a form of televisionclient device (e.g., television set-top box, digital video recorder(DVR), etc.), consumer device, computer device, server device, portablecomputer device, user device, communication device, video processingand/or rendering device, appliance device, gaming device, electronicdevice, and/or as another type of device. Device 800 may also beassociated with a user (e.g., a person) and/or an entity that operatesthe device such that a device describes logical devices that includeusers, software, firmware, and/or a combination of devices.

Device 800 includes communication devices 802 that enable wired and/orwireless communication of device data 804 (e.g., received data, datathat is being received, data scheduled for broadcast, data packets ofthe data, etc.). Device data 804 or other device content can includeconfiguration settings of the device, media content stored on thedevice, and/or information associated with a user of the device. Mediacontent stored on device 800 can include any type of audio, video,and/or image data. Device 800 includes one or more data inputs 806 viawhich any type of data, media content, and/or inputs can be received,such as user-selectable inputs, messages, music, television mediacontent, recorded video content, and any other type of audio, video,and/or image data received from any content and/or data source (e.g.,images and text for presentation in live tiles).

Device 800 also includes communication interfaces 808, which can beimplemented as any one or more of a serial and/or parallel interface, awireless interface, any type of network interface, a modem, and as anyother type of communication interface. The communication interfaces 808provide a connection and/or communication links between device 800 and acommunication network by which other electronic, computing, andcommunication devices communicate data with device 800.

Device 800 includes one or more processors 810 (e.g., any ofmicroprocessors, controllers, and the like), which process variouscomputer-executable instructions to control the operation of device 800and to enable application reporting in an application-selectableinterface. Alternatively or in addition, device 800 can be implementedwith any one or combination of hardware, firmware, or fixed logiccircuitry that is implemented in connection with processing and controlcircuits which are generally identified at 812. Although not shown,device 800 can include a system bus or data transfer system that couplesthe various components within the device. A system bus can include anyone or combination of different bus structures, such as a memory bus ormemory controller, a peripheral bus, a universal serial bus, and/or aprocessor or local bus that utilizes any of a variety of busarchitectures.

Device 800 also includes computer-readable storage media 814, such asone or more memory devices that enable persistent and/or non-transitorydata storage (i.e., in contrast to mere signal transmission), examplesof which include random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g.,any one or more of a read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, EPROM,EEPROM, etc.), and a disk storage device. A disk storage device may beimplemented as any type of magnetic or optical storage device, such as ahard disk drive, a recordable and/or rewriteable compact disc (CD), anytype of a digital versatile disc (DVD), and the like. Device 800 canalso include a mass storage media device 816.

Computer-readable storage media 814 provides data storage mechanisms tostore the device data 804, as well as various device applications 818and any other types of information and/or data related to operationalaspects of device 800. For example, an operating system 820 can bemaintained as a computer application with the computer-readable storagemedia 814 and executed on processors 810. The device applications 818may include a device manager, such as any form of a control application,software application, signal-processing and control module, code that isnative to a particular device, a hardware abstraction layer for aparticular device, and so on.

Device applications 818 also include any system components or modules toimplement techniques enabling live tiles without application-codeexecution. In this example, device applications 818 can include tilemanager 104 and live-tile interface 114.

Conclusion

Although embodiments of techniques and apparatuses enabling live tileswithout application-code execution have been described in languagespecific to features and/or methods, it is to be understood that thesubject of the appended claims is not necessarily limited to thespecific features or methods described. Rather, the specific featuresand methods are disclosed as example implementations for live tileswithout application-code execution.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, at a computing device, an identifier associated with a user;determining, based on the identifier, multiple applications associatedwith the user, the determining comprising: passing the identifier to aremote authenticator; receiving authentication of the user; passing theauthentication to an entity that records application associations forusers; and receiving an application association record for the user, theapplication association record for the user indicating the multipleapplications; receiving, without executing the an application of themultiple applications, content associated with the application;presenting, on a display device of the computing device and based on thedetermined multiple applications, a live-tile user interface containingmultiple live tiles, two or more live tiles of the multiple live tilescorresponding to applications of the determined multiple applications,each of the two or more live tiles within the live-tile user interfacenot occluding each other, the live-tile user interface capable ofconcurrently presenting content within the two or more live tiles in thelive-tile user interface; and presenting, on the display device of thecomputing device and without executing the application, within a livetile associated with the application, and within the live-tile userinterface, the content within the live tile, the presenting enabling,through the live-tile user interface, interaction with the contentpresented in the live tile.
 2. A computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 1, further comprising, prior to presenting thecontent within the live tile, determining that the content is new sincethe user last viewed or interacted with the live-tile user interface. 3.A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein theapplication association record for the user is written at least in partin a markup language and receiving the content includes parsing themarkup language to determine an indicator and retrieving the contentusing the indicator.
 4. A computer-implemented method as described inclaim 1, wherein the content has previously been presented in the livetile associated with the application but has not previously beeninteracted with by the user through the live tile.
 5. Acomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the contenthas previously been presented in the live tile associated with theapplication but is known to be of interest to the user.
 6. Acomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, wherein the contentis directed to a single set of larger content.
 7. A computer-implementedmethod as described in claim 6, wherein the content is one image or aheadline for a news article.
 8. A computer-implemented method asdescribed in claim 1, wherein the content is rotated, on and off, of thelive tile with other content associated with the application.
 9. Acomputer-implemented method as described in claim 1, further comprisingpresenting other content associated with another application, andwherein presenting the content and presenting the other content arepresented at one time in the live-tile user interface, one-at-a-time inrapid succession in the live-tile user interface, or at a firstfrequency the application and a second frequency for the otherapplication.
 10. A computer-implemented method as described in claim 1,wherein the computing device is not sufficiently associated with theuser to preclude a new establishment or renewed association of the userwith the live-tile user interface prior to presenting the live-time userinterface containing the multiple live tiles corresponding to thedetermined multiple applications.
 11. A system comprising: one or moredisplay devices; one or more processors; one or more computer-readablestorage media having computer-readable instructions thereon that,responsive to execution by the one or more processors, performoperations comprising: determining, based on an identifier associatedwith a user, multiple applications associated with the user, thedetermining comprising: passing the identifier to a remoteauthenticator; receiving authentication of the user; passing theauthentication to an entity that records application associations forusers; and receiving an application association record for the user, theapplication association record for the user indicating the multipleapplications; receiving, without executing the an application of themultiple applications, content associated with the application;presenting, on the one or more display devices and based on thedetermined multiple applications, a live-tile user interface containingmultiple live tiles, two or more live tiles of the multiple live tilescorresponding to applications of the determined multiple applications,each of the two or more live tiles within the live-tile user interfacenot occluding each other, the live-tile user interface capable ofconcurrently presenting content within the two or more live tiles in thelive-tile user interface; and presenting, on the one or more displaydevices and without executing the application, within a live tileassociated with the application, and within the live-tile userinterface, the content within the live tile, the presenting enabling,through the live-tile user interface, interaction with the contentpresented in the live tile.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein theapplication association record for the user indicating the multipleapplications indicates a name of the application having the associatedcontent, the name sufficient for the system to locate and retrieve thecontent as part of the receiving the content.
 13. The system of claim11, further comprising receiving metadata of the application, themetadata having an indicator and wherein receiving the contentassociated with the application retrieves the content using theindicator.
 14. The system of claim 11, further comprising presentingother content associated with another application, and whereinpresenting the content and presenting the other content are presented atone time in the live-tile user interface, one-at-a-time in rapidsuccession in the live-tile user interface, or at a first frequency theapplication and a second frequency for the other application.
 15. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the system is not sufficiently associatedwith the user to preclude a new establishment or renewed association ofthe user with the live-tile user interface prior to presenting thelive-time user interface containing the multiple live tilescorresponding to the determined multiple applications.
 16. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the content is rotated, on and off, of the live tilewith other content associated with the application.
 17. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the remote authenticator and the entity that recordsapplication associations for users are a same entity.
 18. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the content is directed to a single set of largercontent of which the content is a part, at least a portion of the largercontent being different than the content, and further comprisingpresenting the portion of the larger content within the live tileassociated with the application.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein oneor more of the multiple applications associated with the user are notaccessible by the system.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein one ormore of the multiple applications associated with the user are notinstalled on the system.